Is the U.S. an Empire?

There has been much speculation about the fall of the Roman Empire. But, as the adage goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day" and it did not fall in a day either. It collapsed slowly over hundreds of years. Perhaps the fall, at least the onset... the first bit of crumbling, was imperceptible to the Romans and to its enemies.

What I think caused Rome's collapse was its hubris, its people's unwillingness to believe it could fall. This was the idea that Rome was eternal and that all other peoples were there to serve it. Not as slaves, per se, but by being willing to send tribute, to feed its hunger. Certainly, to rebel against Rome at its height was to invite destruction. And the barbarians who are seen as its destroyers wanted to be Roman, wanted to be a part of the empire. A contradiction, you think? Maybe.

We have, within the U.S., people who seek its destruction. I am sure they do not see themselves in this way but, nevertheless, that is their goal. They will say they want to change it... for the better, improve it, make it something that its ideals say it should be. I have heard such words many times, I even voiced them myself at one time. I was wrong. But, of course, I didn't think so at the time.

A nation, a society, is a delicate and complex thing. It is obviously complex but it does not appear, to its constituents, to be delicate. It seems strong... in our case, as the preeminent world power... that may be when it is most vulnerable.

I have said it only takes 10% of a population to begin a revolution. It may take even less to trigger a nation's downfall. That, I think, can be done by far less than 10%. Has America's downfall already been triggered by some obscure faction we are not yet aware of?

We won't know until the signs of its destruction are too obvious to ignore...or to stop.